Author: David Kotz

David Kotz is the Champion International Professor in the Department of Computer Science. He previously served as Interim Provost, as Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Sciences, as the Executive Director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies, and on the US Healthcare IT Policy Committee. His research interests include security and privacy, pervasive computing for healthcare, and wireless networks. He has published over 175 refereed journal and conference papers and obtained over $66m in grant funding. He is an Fellow of the IEEE, a Distinguished Member of the ACM, a 2008 Fulbright Fellow to India, and an elected member of Phi Beta Kappa.
After receiving his A.B. in Computer Science and Physics from Dartmouth in 1986, he completed his Ph.D in Computer Science from Duke University in 1991 and returned to Dartmouth to join the faculty. For more information see http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~dfk/.

The Auracle team presented an innovative sensing technology for interacting with wearable devices, during the UIST 2018 in Berlin, Germany.

Abstract: We present Indutivo, a contact-based inductive sensing technique for contextual interactions. Our technique recognizes conductive objects (metallic primarily) that are commonly found in households and daily environments, as well as their individual movements when placed against the sensor. These movements include sliding, hinging, and rotation. We describe our sensing principle and how we designed the size, shape, and layout of our sensor coils to optimize sensitivity, sensing range, recognition and tracking accuracy. Through several studies, we also demonstrated the performance of our proposed sensing technique in environments with varying levels of noise and interference conditions. We conclude by presenting demo applications on a smartwatch, as well as insights and lessons we learned from our experience.

Paper to appear in Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT) (Ubicomp’18).

Abstract: In this paper, we propose Auracle, a wearable earpiece that can automatically recognize eating behavior. More specifically, in free-living conditions, we can recognize when and for how long a person is eating. Using an off-the-shelf contact microphone placed behind the ear, Auracle captures the sound of a person chewing as it passes through the bone and tissue of the head. This audio data is then processed by a custom analog/digital circuit board. To ensure reliable (yet comfortable) contact between microphone and skin, all hardware components are incorporated into a 3D-printed behind-the-head framework. We collected field data with 14 participants for 32 hours in free-living conditions and additional eating data with 10 participants for 2 hours in a laboratory setting. We achieved accuracy exceeding 92.8% and F1 score exceeding 77.5% for eating detection. Moreover, Auracle successfully detected 20-24 eating episodes (depending on the metrics) out of 26 in free-living conditions. We demonstrate that our custom device could sense, process, and classify audio data in real time. Additionally, we estimate Auracle can last 28.1 hours with a 110 mAh battery while communicating its observations of eating behavior to a smartphone over Bluetooth.

The Auracle team presented an innovative new technique for interacting with wearable devices, during the UIST conference last week.

Abstract: We present Pyro, a micro thumb-tip gesture recognition technique based on thermal infrared signals radiating from the fingers. Pyro uses a compact, low-power passive sensor, making it suitable for wearable and mobile applications. To demonstrate the feasibility of Pyro, we developed a self-contained prototype consisting of the infrared pyroelectric sensor, a custom sensing circuit, and software for signal processing and machine learning. A ten-participant user study yielded a 93.9% cross-validation accuracy and 84.9% leave-one-session-out accuracy on six thumb-tip gestures. Subsequent lab studies demonstrated Pyro’s robustness to varying light conditions, hand temperatures, and background motion. We conclude by discussing the insights we gained from this work and future research questions.

A large subset of the Auracle team gathered in Hanover for a very productive full-day retreat, mapping out the coming year’s research agenda and making plans for new prototypes and papers. Great to have everyone (almost everyone) in one place!

David Kotz was recently quoted in a brief story about the Auracle project on the Engineering Innovation Podcast and Radio Series from the National Academy of Engineering, hosted by WTOP News. Listen on their website.

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About the name

Our project name, Auracle, blends 'aural' with 'oracle' to evoke the notion of an ear-worn device that infers things about its wearer.

Acknowledgements

Text and images on this site are copyrighted material, with copyright held by Dartmouth College or by the author of each blog post. University logos are trademarks of their respective university and are used by permission. This research program is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under award numbers CNS-1565269 and CNS-1565268. The views and conclusions contained on this site are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of NSF. Any mention of specific companies or products does not imply any endorsement by the authors or by the NSF.